With their new web video series, two agents in NYC’s suburbs are showcasing listings and taking their brand to the next level.
Adam Blankfort and Ryan Paige lead the Ask Adam Team at Corcoran Baer & McIntosh, serving New York’s Rockland County and neighboring communities in New Jersey.
As early adopters of streaming video, their Facebook Live property tours quickly made them bonafide influencers in the local real estate community—so much, in fact, that even agents with competing firms have invited them to film at their listings simply for the content. They’ve now leveraged pocket-based broadcasting for half a decade, promoting properties, garnering leads, and even outright selling homes as a direct result.
Blankfort, whose professional background includes years with entertainment giant Live Nation, had an extensive network of industry contacts to lean on, many of who settled locally due to the region’s close proximity to Manhattan.
After a new client signed on this spring, impressed to list after seeing the firm’s recent rebrand and affiliation with Corcoran, Blankfort decided to try giving this seller’s video a different treatment. A friend owned LCM247, a production company nearby, so he called over on a whim while driving over to the listing, fully prepared to shoot the home in his usual iPhone format.
“He said, ‘My crew is free this afternoon, why don’t we go meet at the house?’,” Blankfort explained. “There was no vision or direction beyond that, other than ‘follow us through the house, and keep it natural.’”
That couldn’t have been easier for Blankfort and Paige, who grew up in the area and have known each other quite literally since birth. The two didn’t see each other for nearly a decade, but quickly reconnected when Paige got his real estate license—a personal milestone following a major life turnaround—like not a day had passed. “Adam mentored me in this business and truly became a big brother figure,” Paige commented.
The producers, observing their natural chemistry, suggested they augment the on-location shoot by filming studio segments afterward, taking the experiment from a property tour to a bonafide reality show format.
“We were a bit nervous in that, while we wanted to tow the line of marketing ourselves, we also didn’t want to lose focus of our top priority, which was showcasing each property and doing right by our clients,” added Paige.
For the pilot, Blankfort and Paige visit the Bennett-Deyrup Estate (read our full feature here), a breathtaking Queen Anne in Nyack that overlooks the Hudson River. The next installment will bring the client on camera, alluding towards a controversial but entertaining story that aligns with their boldness towards turning the occasional head.
Speaking of heads, you’ll probably take notice of Blankfort’s sartorial signature: a kaleidoscopic showcase of haberdashery. “The truth of the hat is that I’m losing some hair, but it also just makes it funny,” he joshed. “But what’s funnier is that the fedora has gotten us business, simply because it stands out when consumers are scrolling through dozens of agents online.
“One client recognized my hat from a live stream and said, ‘I have to meet the guy that wears the fedora.’ Since then, we’ve already listed and sold his first property in a bidding war, and we’re about to represent his second investment property.”
The end result is a uniquely hyper-local production with a clear approach on showcasing New York and New Jersey’s remarkable properties and their provenance, with the storylines of its two leading characters naturally intertwined. They’ll be promoting the series in various formats across social media, with full-length episodes airing via askadamsells.com.
“We both belong to about 50 local real estate groups on Facebook alone, and we’re sharing every piece of content we make there,” said Blankfort. “There are so many great, organic resources when you take the time to research where communities connect.”
Watch the full pilot here.
Serving communities north and south of New York City along the Hudson River’s west shore, including New York’s Rockland and Orange Counties and Bergen County, New Jersey.